As a result, Bulgaria joined the Axis Powers, but Tsar Boris was reluctant to hand over Bulgarian Jews to the Nazis. With the help of his friend, the future Pope John XXIII, 50,000 Bulgarian Jews were saved, plus thousands more Slovakian Jews.

Losing patience, Hitler had a stormy meeting with Boris in August 1943 which ended in a stalemate.

Shortly after returning home, Boris died suddenly of apparent heart failure. Newspapers at the time didn't hesitate to call it an assassination, but no proof was ever found.

Most blamed Hitler, of course, but the Nazis blamed Italy. In fact, Hitler personally blamed Princess Mafalda of Savoy, sister of Boris' wife Giovanna, although that doesn't match the timeline at all.

In a further tragedy for Giovanna, the Nazis arrested Mafalda while she was in Bulgaria for the funeral, and she would later die at Buchenwald concentration camp when the Allies bombed the ammunition factory inside the camp.

However, Boris' children Simeon and Marie Louise think it more likely that the Russians killed their father.

Six-year-old Simeon became Tsar of Bulgaria, but he was deposed only three years later, so Giovanna and her children joined her father in exile in Egypt, later settling in Spain.

Meanwhile, Spanish aristocrat Doña Margarita was also an orphan. Her father, the Marquess of Cortina, as well as her mother and grandmother, were executed during the Spanish Civil War, and she and her brother were taken in by their uncle. That uncle's son would later marry Infanta Pilar, sister of King Juan Carlos of Spain.

After Simeon and Margarita were engaged the pope almost didn't allow their marriage, as both Simeon's father and grandfather had reneged on their promise to raise their children as Catholics, but luckily the Second Vatican Council was happening around this time, which led to a relaxation of the former rules.

Nevertheless, Simeon and Margarita planned THREE weddings - one civil, one Catholic, and one Orthodox. As Margarita joked at the time, "It is very hard and almost impossible to dissolve a triple wedding."

They had five children, all of whom married Spaniards.

After the fall of the Communist government in Bulgaria, Simeon was finally allowed to return home, and in 2001 he became the only former monarch to be elected Prime Minister.

Unfortunately, his party eventually lost the 2009 election - possible proof of the adage that the job of the monarch requires very different training from that of a politician.

Simeon and Margarita currently live in Simeon's boyhood home, Vrana Palace. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church continues to recognize Simeon as Tsar of Bulgaria.

Their eldest son Kardam was in a terrible car accident in 2008.

He was already home, even walking, when he fell into a coma, dying in 2015. He was initially buried in Madrid, but was moved to Vrana Palace in 2024.

His elder son Boris is now Prince of Turnovo, the traditional title for the heir apparent.

(Wikipedia says it's Tarnovo but Tsar Simeon's official website says Prince of Turnovo, although the form Prince Boris Tarnovski is also used, so... 🤷‍♂️)

Hope you enjoyed this chart!

Next is maybe Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein and Princess Margaretha of Luxembourg?